Vehicles used in military and rescue are historically manufactured to perform a specific role, limiting the capabilities of the vehicle to those addressing the requirements of that role. Such specialized equipment requires a support team consisting of highly trained technicians to maintain and service the vehicle. With the specialized support equipment and tools required to keep the vehicle operational, the costs associated with this support infrastructure are significant.
Rescue vehicles need to be able to accommodate the transport of a crew from one location to another in order to facilitate the recovery of injured persons. Large open areas are required inside the vehicle in order to expeditiously move people and equipment from inside and outside the vehicle. Features such as large doors and flat level surfaces, suitable to fit several stretchers are necessary for the easy movement of injured people into and out of the vehicle. Vehicles used in this role are not typically used in offensive operations, but as backup support vehicles to follow offensive vehicles and recover casualties. The nature of the role the rescue vehicle performs precludes the use of features such as gun ports, heavy armor or weapon station hatches.
A problem with standard vehicle bases is that they fail to accept and work with a variety of add-on boxes or shelters for varying uses. Extensive and highly precise modifications to mass-produced vehicle bases or chassis, are required when adding many of these add-on boxes ore cargo bed covers, which adds considerable costs and prevents a baseline commonality prohibiting installation by generalized technicians and equipment. An adapter is needed that readily accepts the multitude of cargo bed covers and similar “add-ons,” either for military or rescue in nature, without extensive modification to the vehicle, accommodating vehicle variations within manufacturing tolerances.
The following is a disclosure of the present invention that addresses these problems and shortcomings of prior vehicle cover mounting systems, and will be understood by reference to the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
Reference characters included in the above drawings indicate corresponding parts throughout the several views, as discussed herein. The description herein illustrates preferred embodiments of the invention, and the description herein is not to be construed as limiting the scope of the invention in any manner. It should be understood that the above listed figures are not necessarily to scale and that the embodiments may be illustrated by fragmentary views, graphic symbols, diagrammatic or schematic representations, and phantom lines. Details that are not necessary for an understanding of the present invention by one skilled in the technology of the invention, or render other details difficult to perceive, may have been omitted.